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6 Reasons To Buy An Xbox 360 Instead Of A PlayStation 3

Looking for a video game console for that special someone this Holiday season? You might want to consider the Xbox 360 over the PS3—here’s why.

The Xbox 360 sold like hotcakes during Black Friday week. Despite the fact that Microsoft’s console is nearing its eighth birthday, the system still has a lot to offer, even with the next generation of gaming systems on the not-too distant horizon.

So why buy the Xbox 360 over Sony’s PS3? Here are six reasons.

1. Xbox Live is more secure than PSN

It’s true that the PlayStation Network is free and that you’ll need to pay to access online features with Xbox Live. But the old adage remains true: you pay for what you get. Xbox Live remains a more secure platform than the PSN, subject to far fewer hacks and other problems.

And while the paid PlayStation Plus service is certainly a great value, the fact remains that if you have security concerns the Xbox 360 is the better of the two. No network is going to be perfectly secure, of course, but Xbox Live has never seen a month-long hack in which tens of millions of users were affected.

2. The Xbox 360 controller is better, especially for shooters

It may not come with a rechargeable battery pack or cable, but the Xbox 360 controller does fit much more comfortably to the shape of the human hand. The thumbsticks also respond with more accuracy than those on Sony’s DualShock controller, making the Xbox 360 a far better fit for anything that requires pinpoint precision, such as first-person shooters.

There’s nothing wrong with the PS3 controller, of course, but I find the layout and grip on the Xbox 360 controller is a tiny bit more intuitive, though it’s quite possible that children and people with smaller hands might prefer the slightly more compact offering from Sony.

3. Better exclusives if you like shooters

I’m not a huge fan of shooters, whether third or first-person. This makes me lean more toward the Sony exclusives like Demon’s Souls and LittleBigPlanet. But if you’re a fan of shooters, Xbox 360 is the only place to go for the Halo franchise, or the Gears of War games. Likewise, even cross-platform shooters will have a more robust online community on Xbox Live than PS3.

Meanwhile, even though the Killzone games on PS3 are decent shooters, there’s just not anything equivalent to the big dogs on Xbox 360 for gamers with a penchant for shooting at one another.

4. Cross-platform games have more problems on PS3

If anything, this seems to be more of an issue now than in the past. Games like Skyrim on the PS3 have game-breaking bugs. But many other games in recent months have had similar, though less enduring, problems. Users of many third party games have reported lag, freezing, game crashes and other problems.

This is likely due to the fact that the PS3 is more difficult to develop games on, especially for cross-platform third party titles. While developers who devote all their time to Sony exclusives can produce remarkable results, cross-platform releases often struggle on the PlayStation 3.

5. In the US, your friends are more likely to have an Xbox 360

To put it simply, the PS3 dominates globally but the Xbox 360 is the machine of choice here in the US. This means you’re more likely to have friends playing online Xbox 360 games than you are to have friends playing online PS3 games (though, obviously, this depends on your friends.)

While Xbox has never made a huge splash overseas, it manages to appeal to American gamers, and certainly makes the choice here, for online gamers especially, a no-brainer.

6. Integration with Windows and Windows 8

Finally, if you want to network your console to your Windows-based PC or your Windows Phone, the Xbox 360 is the way to go. While you can link the PS Vita to your PS3, it’s trickier to network Sony’s console with your home PC. To be fair, Microsoft could do a much better job making this process easier themselves, but with their SmartGlass technology and Windows 8, linking all your Windows products together will be easier than ever.

~

All that being said, I think the “console wars” are silly. This piece is a companion piece to my earlier post “6 Reasons To Buy A PlayStation 3 Instead of an Xbox 360.” It’s not that I’ve changed my mind. Truth be told, there’s many reasons to buy either one of these consoles. They both have many wonderful qualities and many shortcomings.

The number one reason to go with either the PS3 or Xbox 360 is the exclusive titles, and that really boils down to a matter of taste. There are many great exclusives on both systems, but gamers will never agree on which are the best.

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this is stupid – half of the reasons are completely subjective. is the x-box a “shooter system”? that’s what your argument would lead one to believe. i’ll agree that live is more secure than PSN, but hey, it costs $50 a year, so better service is expected. also, if someone uses an apple computer, your last point is completely moot. the controller argument is completely subjective – how about the fact that ps3 uses bluetooth connectivity, bluetooth keyboards, mice, and headsets can connect to it, the controller comes with a built-in rechargeable battery, the hdd can be upgraded with any normal laptop hdd, the survival rate of ps3s are better (no RRD in its histoy) – i could keep going.

I actually think Erik wrote a piece a while back about how you should get a PS3 over an XBOX. I don’t think he is saying that one is better than the other… just positives of the XBOX compared to the PS3 IN HIS OPINION.

I firmly support the PS3 over the Xbox for a wide variety of reasons, but survivability isn’t one of them. I’ve had my PS3 give me a Yellow Light of Death three times in the course of a single year. Only one of those was covered by Sony’s warranty as factory repairs only carry a 90 day warranty on them (that one failed less than a month after getting it back) and they charge $120 for repairs. At least Microsoft was found to have knowingly made a console with hardware flaws, fixed it, and started handling repairs for free.

Out of the 6 PS3 consoles my family owns(we also have about 5 xbox consoles and a few wiis and Im just talking between 5 kids and 2 adults), I can safely say, that the xbox break more often lol, we have had 0 PS3 breaks, and over 15 xbox’s that had to be replaced or repaired(after number 6 or 7 we just started repairing them ourselves (not the towel trick but actually taking them apart resordering and such).

Xbox break if a hair follicle falls on them too hard. the ps3 is a pretty touch system, both the old ones and the slim, my PS3 has dropped like 3 or 4 times, and I gotta say its still doing great, all the ps3s in the house are doing great except 1 which the little cloth flap is getting stuck when we try to eject the game and we have to catch it with a butter knife(its the oldest ps3 in the house its a day 1 model).

I’d be interested in picking up a 360 for The Witcher 2 as well as the many unique XBox Live titles on the platform. Games like Bastion and Mark of the Ninja, Dust: an Elysian Tale, on and on. Yes, I realize that some of these games can be played on PC as well, it’s just a personal preference to play games on a dedicated video game machine.

u sir are a dumb ass, xbox live has the worse history of accounts been hacked and sold on the black market, besides all the accounts been stolen trough the fifa hack, so next time u say live is more secure u should read up on more info